Rover and toy Rosetta in Mars Yard

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An ESA rover under testing is joined in the Agency’s rocky ‘Mars Yard’ by a plush toy version of Rosetta.

This comet-chasing spacecraft was never intended to be a lander, but Rosetta will be following its Philae lander (seen atop Rosetta here) down to the surface of 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko in a controlled descent on 30 September.

Then on Sunday 2 October, comes ESA’s annual Open Day in the Netherlands: your chance to see this 8 x 8 m Mars Yard – part of ESA’s Planetary Robotics Laboratory – and the rest of ESA’s technical heart in Noordwijk for yourself.